Animation TV Shows

2005 · 3 Seasons · Nickelodeon · Animated Fantasy / Adventure

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of those rare shows that fully earns its reputation as an all-time great. Across 61 episodes, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko built a world that feels lived-in and layered, populated it with characters who grow in ways that would be impressive in any medium, and told a war story with the emotional complexity of prestige drama while never forgetting that it was also supposed to be fun. Zuko's arc from villain to hero stands as one of the finest character transformations in television history, animated or otherwise. A handful of filler episodes in the first season and some childish humor are the only real blemishes on a show that gets better with every rewatch and continues to find new audiences nearly two decades after it first aired.

2014 · 1 Season · Cartoon Network · Animation, Fantasy, Mystery

Over the Garden Wall is a nearly perfect piece of animated storytelling. In just ten episodes totaling under two hours, it builds a haunting fairy-tale world, develops genuine emotional depth between its two leads, and delivers a narrative that rewards multiple viewings with new layers of meaning. The folk-inspired soundtrack by The Blasting Company is extraordinary, the visual design evokes classic illustration traditions, and the story knows exactly when to end. Minor quibbles about humor that occasionally falls flat or episodes that feel more atmospheric than substantive barely register against the cumulative power of the whole. This is the rare show that does everything it sets out to do and never overstays its welcome.

2024 · 1 Season · Disney+ · Animation, Action, Sci-Fi

X-Men '97 pulls off something that revival series almost never manage: it honors the original while standing confidently on its own. The animation is a massive upgrade, the storytelling carries genuine emotional stakes, and the show isn't afraid to push beloved characters into uncomfortable territory. A handful of rushed character arcs and the occasional fan-service nod that lands with a thud are the only real stumbles. This is the rare continuation that makes both longtime fans and newcomers understand why these characters mattered in the first place.

2016 · 3 Seasons · Crunchyroll · Animation / Action / Comedy / Supernatural

Mob Psycho 100 is one of the rare anime that gets better with every season and sticks the landing when it matters most. It wraps profound messages about self-acceptance and emotional growth inside some of the most inventive animation the medium has produced, and it does it without ever feeling like it's lecturing you. The humor is sharp, the action is spectacular, and the heart underneath it all is completely genuine. Three seasons wasn't many, but the show used every one of those 37 episodes to say exactly what it wanted to say.

2003 · 7 Seasons · Adult Swim · Animated Comedy / Action-Adventure

The Venture Bros. spent seven seasons and a wrap-up film building one of the richest, funniest, and most emotionally rewarding universes in adult animation. Its character development puts most prestige dramas to shame, its comedy remains endlessly quotable, and its willingness to let characters truly change gave it a depth that no other superhero parody has matched. The long hiatuses between seasons tested patience, and the show's density makes it impenetrable for casual viewers, but for anyone willing to commit, this is one of the finest animated series ever produced.

2023 · 1 Season · Netflix · Animation, Action, Drama

Blue Eye Samurai is a stunning achievement in adult animation, combining gorgeous hand-crafted visual design with a revenge narrative that hits hard and rarely lets up. The fight choreography alone would justify a watch, but the layered exploration of identity, belonging, and the cost of vengeance elevates this far beyond a simple action series. Some character choices lack consistency and the show occasionally leans too heavily on graphic content, but these are minor blemishes on an otherwise exceptional first season. For anyone who's ever wished animated storytelling for adults would aim higher, this is proof that it can.

2001 · 5 Seasons · Cartoon Network / Adult Swim · Animated Action-Adventure / Science Fantasy

Samurai Jack remains one of the most visually inventive animated series ever produced. Genndy Tartakovsky's masterful use of minimal dialogue, cinematic composition, and bold graphic design pushed the medium forward in ways that still haven't been surpassed. The original four seasons are nearly flawless in their execution. The revival's final season delivers darker themes and a satisfying character arc for Jack, but a rushed finale and uneven pacing in its back half prevent it from reaching the heights of what came before. As a complete work, this is still a landmark achievement in animated storytelling.

2012 · 2 Seasons · Disney Channel · Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Gravity Falls is a masterfully crafted animated series that layers genuine mystery, sharp humor, and emotional depth into a show that respects its audience regardless of age.

1992 · 2 Seasons · Fox · Animation, Action, Adventure

Batman: The Animated Series redefined what superhero animation could achieve, delivering mature storytelling, iconic voice performances, and a visual style that remains unmatched more than three decades later.

2018 · 3 Seasons · ABC Kids · Animated Comedy

Bluey achieves something remarkable by being simultaneously a perfect preschool show and deeply moving television for adults, with its seven-minute episodes delivering more emotional truth about family life than most hour-long dramas manage.

2021 · 2 Seasons · Netflix · Animation / Action / Adventure / Fantasy

Arcane took a video game property that had no business producing great television and turned it into one of the most ambitious animated series in recent memory. Its first season is a near-flawless piece of character-driven storytelling, elevated by animation that redefined what the medium could look like. The second season reaches higher but stumbles with pacing that leaves too many threads feeling rushed. That's a real flaw in an otherwise remarkable achievement. Taken as a whole, this is a show that proved animated drama deserves the same respect as its live-action counterparts, and it earned every bit of the attention it received.

2014 · 6 Seasons · Netflix · Animated Tragicomedy

BoJack Horseman is one of the most emotionally ambitious animated series ever produced, a show that used talking animals and Hollywood satire as cover for a deeply serious exploration of depression, addiction, and the limits of self-awareness. Its six seasons built something that very few comedies attempt and even fewer pull off: a long-form character study where the laughs and the devastation feel equally earned. The first season requires patience, and the subject matter can be hard to sit with. But the show's refusal to offer easy answers or redemptive arcs for its deeply flawed characters is exactly what makes it resonate so powerfully with the people who stick with it.

2023 · 1 Season · Netflix · Sci-Fi, Mystery, Animation

Pluto transforms Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy into a mature, emotionally devastating mystery thriller about grief, hatred, and what it means to be alive, with Naoki Urasawa's masterful storytelling given the animated adaptation it deserved.

2019 · 3 Seasons · Adult Swim · Animation / Action / Horror / Drama

Primal is one of the most remarkable achievements in modern animation, a series that tells a deeply emotional story about grief, survival, and unlikely companionship without a single word of dialogue. Genndy Tartakovsky's visual storytelling is operating at a level that makes most animated shows look timid by comparison, and the bond between Spear and Fang is as affecting as any relationship on television. The second season's shift toward more fantastical elements divided some fans, and the relentless violence won't be for everyone. But when Primal is firing on all cylinders, there is nothing else like it on TV.

2010 · 10 Seasons · Cartoon Network · Animation, Fantasy, Comedy

Adventure Time started as a goofy cartoon about a boy and his magic dog and slowly revealed itself as one of the most ambitious animated narratives ever attempted. Its willingness to tackle loneliness, identity, trauma, and love within a candy-colored post-apocalyptic world earned it a place in animation history. The middle seasons drag with filler and the mythology can feel impenetrable to latecomers, but the highs are extraordinary. This is a show that grew up alongside its audience, and the emotional payoff of that journey is something few series in any medium have matched.

2005 · 3 Seasons · Adult Swim · Animated Dark Comedy / Drama

Moral Orel begins as a sharp religious satire and transforms into one of the most emotionally devastating animated series ever made. The third season's pivot from comedy to bleak character study is a creative gamble that completely pays off, revealing the hollow core beneath Moralton's pious surface. Its cancellation cut the story shorter than intended, but what exists is a uniquely powerful piece of television that rewards patience and emotional fortitude.

2017 · 1 Season · Tokyo MX · Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Animation

Land of the Lustrous proved that CGI anime could be genuinely beautiful while telling a deeply philosophical story about identity, purpose, and transformation through its cast of living gemstone characters.

2023 · 1 Season · Max · Animation, Sci-Fi, Drama

Scavengers Reign is one of the most visually original animated series to arrive in the streaming era, building an alien world so richly detailed that the planet itself becomes the show's most compelling character. Its commitment to showing rather than telling makes for an immersive, almost hypnotic viewing experience. Character depth doesn't always match the worldbuilding, and the deliberate pacing will lose viewers who need more narrative momentum, but nothing else on television looks or feels like this. Its cancellation after one season means the story remains unfinished, which stings, but what exists is remarkable enough to stand on its own.

2007 · 4 Seasons · Disney Channel · Animation, Comedy, Musical

Phineas and Ferb turned a simple summer vacation premise into one of the smartest and most consistently entertaining animated comedies of its generation. Its songs are absurdly catchy, its humor works on multiple levels, and the Perry and Doofenshmirtz dynamic is one of the best comedic pairings in animation history. The formula gets repetitive if you binge too many episodes back to back, and the show never really evolves beyond its established structure. But within that structure, it operates at a level of craft and wit that most children's shows can only dream of reaching.

2022 · 1 Season · Netflix · Animation / Action / Science Fiction / Drama

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a devastating ten-episode sprint through a world that chews people up and spits them out, animated by Studio Trigger with a visual energy that makes Night City feel more alive than the game ever managed. David Martinez's arc from desperate kid to doomed legend is a tragedy told at full speed, and the emotional gut-punch of the finale lands harder than most anime manage in three times the episode count. The compressed runtime leaves some character development feeling thin, and the middle episodes rush through material that could have used more room to breathe. But as a self-contained story about ambition, love, and the cost of trying to be somebody in a city that doesn't care, it's one of the best anime of its year.

1999 · 11 Seasons · Fox / Comedy Central / Hulu · Animated Sci-Fi Comedy

Futurama carved out a unique space in animated comedy by combining sharp science fiction concepts with the kind of emotional storytelling that can leave you emotionally wrecked by a 22-minute cartoon. Its original run on Fox remains one of the best stretches of animated television ever produced, packed with clever writing, memorable characters, and a handful of episodes that rank among the most emotionally devastating in the medium. The multiple cancellations and revivals have created an uneven viewing experience across its full run, but even the weaker stretches contain enough spark to remind you why the show keeps getting brought back. Few comedies have ever balanced brains and heart this well.

1997 · 28 Seasons · Comedy Central · Animated Sitcom / Satire

South Park remains one of the boldest comedies on television, willing to say things no other show would consider and often finding something true in the process. Its fast production turnaround lets it engage with the world in near real-time, and when the satire connects, nothing else on TV comes close to its combination of absurdity and insight. The crude animation and relentless vulgarity will always limit its audience, and the show's increased political focus has divided even its most devoted fans. But across nearly three decades, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have built something that no other animated series has attempted on this scale, a comedy that refuses to leave anything off-limits.

1999 · 4 Seasons · UPN / Adult Swim · Animated Comedy / Slice of Life

Home Movies is one of the warmest and most naturally funny animated comedies of its era, built on improvised dialogue and characters so naturalistic they feel more like real people than cartoon creations. Brendon Small and Loren Bouchard crafted a show that found profound comedy in the mundane anxieties of childhood, single parenthood, and creative ambition. Its visual simplicity hides an emotional sophistication that sneaks up on you, and Coach McGuirk remains one of the greatest comic characters in animation history.

2018 · 4 Seasons · Tokyo MX · Action, Adventure, Animation

Golden Kamuy is a wild ride through post-Russo-Japanese War Hokkaido that somehow makes a treasure hunt involving tattooed convicts, Ainu culture, and extreme wilderness cooking into one of the most entertaining and educational anime of its era.

2018 · 1 Season · Fuji TV · Action, Drama, Animation

Banana Fish is a gripping crime thriller that transplants a beloved 1980s manga into a modern New York setting, delivering a story about power, trauma, and an unlikely bond that hits with devastating emotional force.

2006 · 2 Seasons · MBS · Mecha / Political Thriller / Action

Code Geass is a political thriller wrapped in a mecha anime that delivers one of the medium's most iconic protagonists and most debated endings. Lelouch's chess game against an empire crumbles and rebuilds across fifty episodes of escalating stakes, strategic confrontations, and moral compromises that keep viewers questioning whether the ends justify the means. The second season's tonal swings and plot conveniences undercut the precision of the first, but the series as a whole remains one of the most ambitious and rewarding anime of the 2000s.

2022 · 3 Seasons · Adult Swim · Animation / Comedy / Absurdist

Smiling Friends packed more creative energy into its 11-minute episodes than most shows manage in an hour. The mixed-media animation was constantly surprising, the humor landed with the kind of density that rewards rewatching, and the show never lost the handmade quality that made it feel like nothing else on television. It ended after three seasons by choice rather than decline, which is the rarest kind of exit in animation. For a show about making people smile, it turned out to be pretty good at it.

2019 · 5 Seasons · Max · Animation, Comedy, Action

Harley Quinn is the rare comic book adaptation that found its voice early and kept refining it across five seasons. Its Harley is chaotic, violent, vulnerable, and laugh-out-loud funny, and the show built an entire Gotham around her that feels more alive than most live-action versions. The Harley and Ivy relationship gives the series an emotional core that grounds even its most absurd moments. Later seasons don't quite reach the heights of the second and third, and the violence occasionally tips from darkly comic into gratuitous. But as a complete package, this is one of the most entertaining and emotionally satisfying animated shows DC has produced.

1999 · 16 Seasons · Nickelodeon · Animation, Comedy

SpongeBob SquarePants produced one of the greatest runs in animated television history during its first three seasons, establishing characters and comedy that became permanently embedded in pop culture. The decline after creator Stephen Hillenburg stepped back is real and well-documented, with several middle seasons delivering mean-spirited, creatively bankrupt episodes that bear little resemblance to what came before. Later seasons recovered some ground but never fully recaptured the original magic. At its best, nothing in animated comedy touches it. The problem is that its best represents only a fraction of what the show eventually became.

2010 · 8 Seasons · Cartoon Network · Animation, Comedy, Fantasy

Regular Show took the simplest possible premise and turned it into something brilliantly unpredictable. Two slackers try to avoid work, and somehow every episode escalates into cosmic chaos, supernatural threats, or interdimensional warfare. The 80s and 90s nostalgia gives it a warm, specific personality, the character relationships feel genuine, and the humor lands with remarkable consistency across eight seasons. Some episodes blur together due to a repetitive structure, and the final season's space setting divided fans, but the show's ability to find real emotion inside absurd situations makes it one of Cartoon Network's finest achievements.

2017 · 4 Seasons · Netflix · Animation / Action / Dark Fantasy / Horror

Castlevania did something the entire entertainment industry had spent decades failing at: it turned a video game into a great television show. Four seasons of gorgeous animation, morally complex characters, and action choreography that set a new standard for the medium. The pacing stumbles in the back half, particularly once Dracula exits the stage, and some storylines in seasons three and four feel stretched thin. But the highs are extraordinary, the character work is far deeper than anyone expected from a Konami adaptation, and the fight sequences alone are worth the price of entry. This is the show that proved video game stories could work on screen.

2012 · 3 Seasons · MBS · Sports, Animation

Kuroko's Basketball turns high school basketball into a superpower spectacle, and the combination of an invisible protagonist with over-the-top athletic abilities makes for one of the most entertaining sports anime around.

2001 · 2 Seasons · Nickelodeon · Animated Dark Comedy / Science Fiction

Invader Zim brought a distinctly dark, absurdist vision to children's television that felt unlike anything else on Nickelodeon. Jhonen Vasquez's singular aesthetic and the show's willingness to embrace the grotesque made it a cult phenomenon that outlived its brief two-season run by decades. Its cancellation was premature, but the episodes that exist showcase a creative voice so distinctive that the show remains instantly recognizable more than twenty years later.

2006 · 2 Seasons · Adult Swim · Animated Comedy / Action Parody

Frisky Dingo is Adam Reed's most underappreciated work, a tightly serialized comedy that applies the voice and sensibility he later brought to Archer to the superhero genre with sharper teeth and fewer guardrails. Its two seasons are packed with running gags, escalating absurdity, and character dynamics that reward close attention. Cancellation after 25 episodes left the story unfinished, but what exists is some of the smartest, fastest comedy Adult Swim has ever produced.

1992 · 5 Seasons · Fox Kids · Animation, Action, Sci-Fi

X-Men: The Animated Series brought Marvel's mutants to a massive audience with a level of narrative ambition that Saturday morning cartoons rarely attempted. Its willingness to adapt complex comic book storylines, tackle themes of prejudice and identity, and treat its audience as capable of following serialized drama set a standard that superhero animation measured itself against for years. The final season's production collapse is painful, and the animation never matched the quality of the writing throughout the run. But the storytelling confidence and emotional weight of its best arcs, from the Dark Phoenix Saga to the Sentinel conflicts, represent something truly special in the history of animated television.

2014 · 4 Seasons · Disney XD · Animation, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Star Wars: Rebels starts slow and ends as some of the best storytelling in the entire franchise. The Ghost crew grows from a collection of archetypes into a family you come to care about deeply, and the show's willingness to explore the Force, the Rebellion's messy origins, and the personal costs of resistance gives it thematic weight that rivals the original trilogy. Season one tests your patience with filler and a tone that skews younger than expected, and the animation style never fully escapes comparison to The Clone Wars. But the highs of seasons two through four, particularly any episode involving Ahsoka, Maul, or Thrawn, are among the best things Star Wars has ever produced in any medium.

2006 · 4 Seasons · Adult Swim · Animated Comedy / Musical

Metalocalypse is the rare show that works equally well as comedy and as a genuine celebration of the music it parodies. Brendon Small's compositions for Dethklok are legitimately good metal, and the show's escalating mythology about a band whose popularity threatens civilization provides a surprisingly compelling narrative backbone. The unresolved series ending remains a sore point, but four seasons of sharp comedy, brutal animation, and committed world-building make this one of Adult Swim's most distinctive creations.

2000 · 4 Seasons · Adult Swim · Animated Comedy / Legal Parody

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law is one of Adult Swim's most cleverly constructed comedies, repurposing Hanna-Barbera's classic cartoon library into a rapid-fire legal satire that rewards repeat viewings. Its eleven-minute format keeps episodes tight and joke-dense, and the voice cast, particularly Stephen Colbert as Phil Ken Sebben, delivers some of the best comic performances in the network's history. Not every episode hits equally, but the show's batting average is impressive across its four-season run.

2019 · 1 Season · Tokyo MX · Action, Dark Fantasy, Animation

The 2019 Dororo adaptation brings Osamu Tezuka's classic dark fantasy to life with stunning action and a haunting premise about a young warrior reclaiming his stolen body parts from demons, one fight at a time.

2002 · 2 Seasons · MTV / HBO Max · Animated Comedy / Satire

Clone High's original 2002 season is a brilliantly absurd take on teen drama that uses its cloned-historical-figures premise to skewer high school tropes with sharp writing and genuine heart. The 2023 revival on HBO Max has its moments but struggles to recapture the original's lightning-in-a-bottle energy. As a complete package, it's a show that rewards fans of smart, silly comedy, even if its second chapter doesn't quite measure up to its first.

2023 · 1 Season · Netflix · Animation, Action, Comedy, Romance

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is a bold creative gamble that mostly pays off. Rather than retelling a story fans already know, it tears the premise apart and rebuilds it around Ramona Flowers, giving her the depth and agency previous versions never quite managed. Science SARU's animation is gorgeous, the original film cast returning for voice work adds warmth and continuity, and the show's willingness to go somewhere truly unexpected keeps it exciting even when the pacing stumbles. Fans expecting a faithful adaptation may feel betrayed by the first episode's swerve, and the condensed runtime leaves some threads underdeveloped. But as a love letter that's also a critique of its own source material, it's a surprisingly thoughtful piece of work.

2019 · 2 Seasons · Amazon Prime Video · Animation / Drama / Fantasy / Comedy

Undone is one of the most visually inventive and thematically ambitious animated series of recent years, using its rotoscope technique not as a gimmick but as an essential storytelling tool that mirrors its protagonist's fractured relationship with reality. Rosa Salazar's performance anchors a show that's simultaneously funny, heartbreaking, and philosophically rich. The second season expands the story in ways that don't always match the first season's focus, and the deliberate ambiguity will frustrate viewers who want clear answers. But as an exploration of family, trauma, mental health, and the nature of perception, Undone does things that no other show is attempting.

2022 · 2 Seasons · AMC+ · Animation / Sci-Fi / Drama / Thriller

Pantheon is the kind of show that deserved a bigger audience and got buried by a streaming platform that didn't know what to do with it. Its exploration of digital consciousness, corporate power, and what makes a person a person is handled with the kind of philosophical seriousness that most animated series wouldn't attempt. The slow start is real, and the technical jargon can be dense, but the payoff across both seasons justifies the patience required to get there. This is smart, ambitious science fiction that treats animation as a legitimate vehicle for adult drama.

2008 · 7 Seasons · Cartoon Network / Disney+ · Animation / Action / Adventure / Sci-Fi

Star Wars: The Clone Wars transformed a gap between two movies into one of the most expansive storytelling achievements in the franchise. Its best arcs deliver drama, moral complexity, and emotional weight that stand alongside anything in the films. Getting to those arcs means pushing through a significant amount of filler and accepting that the show's anthology format creates an uneven viewing experience by design. For anyone willing to meet it on those terms, Clone Wars adds layers of depth to the Star Wars universe that nothing else in the franchise has matched.

2019 · 4 Seasons · Netflix · Animation, Sci-Fi, Anthology

Love, Death & Robots is animated science fiction at its most ambitious and its most inconsistent. When an episode connects, combining a compelling story with a distinctive animation style, the results can be breathtaking. When it doesn't, you're left with a technically impressive but emotionally hollow exercise. The anthology format means both experiences are inevitable, often within the same volume. Four seasons in, the show remains the best showcase for the range and potential of adult animation on any streaming platform, even if it has never quite achieved the consistency that would make it a masterpiece.

2013 · 5 Seasons · Cartoon Network · Animated Fantasy

Steven Universe broke new ground for children's animation through its music, emotional intelligence, and inclusive storytelling, though uneven pacing and a rushed conclusion keep it from reaching the heights its best episodes promise.

1997 · 13 Seasons · Fox · Animated Comedy

King of the Hill remains one of television's finest comedies about ordinary American life, finding extraordinary humor in mundane situations through patience, observation, and genuine affection for its characters, even as later seasons dilute what made the early years special.

2011 · 16 Seasons · Fox · Animation, Comedy

Bob's Burgers built one of television's most likable families and sustained quality comedy for years, even as its later seasons struggle to match the creative energy of its peak.